


Tumbling Down

by MoonlightCherries



Category: The Wizard of Oz & Related Fandoms, Wicked - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Historical, Dancing, F/F, Flirting, Lesbian Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:27:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23323189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonlightCherries/pseuds/MoonlightCherries
Summary: The Ozdust Ballroom attracts all sorts, and Glinda notices them all.
Relationships: Elphaba Thropp & Galinda Upland, Elphaba Thropp/Galinda Upland, Glinda the Good/Wicked Witch of the West
Comments: 13
Kudos: 45





	1. Tumbling Down

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own none of these characters  
> Title inspired by "Old River" by Orville Peck

She was frustrating Glinda, this girl in the corner. Didn’t she _know_ what kind of attention she was drawing to herself? Didn’t she _know_ you couldn’t come into the Ozdust looking like _that_ and expect people to just ignore you?

The Ozdust Ballroom was hardly a classy place – sawdust littering the floor, moonshine served in mason jars, dingy lighting – but _still_. Girls don’t show up dressed like she was, not in Shiz at any rate. Girls came to the Ozdust looking like…well, like Glinda did. Shiny curled hair, pink dress, lipstick, heels. You showed up ready to dance, ready to sweep some young solider off his feet, make him promise to write and then do it all again tomorrow. But this girl. She was about to drive Glinda mad.

Didn’t she know how she stood out? Dark hair in a simple braid, thrown over one shoulder like she’d just finished working. Dark trousers specked with the sawdust from the floor, suspenders and a white blouse. Like a man. Although, Glinda thought, it’s not like any of the men ever looked as good as this girl did. But that wasn’t the point. The point was she should know better. She should know that there are rules, rules meant to be followed.

What was wrong with this girl? Why wasn’t she dancing, at least? Instead of slouching against a supporting beam, stealing sips from a flask when the bartender wasn’t looking.

She watched the dancers, Glinda among them. In fact, Glinda thought she might have been watching Glinda especially. She banished that thought as quickly as it came, because of course that was just her vanity speaking. Not as easily banished, however, was the shiver the thought sent down her spine.

So, the girl (maybe) watched Glinda. And Glinda (definitely) watched the girl.

The night got darker, the dancers got drunker, and Glinda got more agitated by the minute. This girl was _infuriating_. Didn’t she know how maddening it was for Glinda to watch her long fingers roll a cigarette? To watch her place it in her mouth? To see her lazily blow smoke to one side, never breaking eye contact?

Never breaking eye contact.

The girl was watching Glinda. And Glinda couldn’t stop watching her.

The music stopped, the boy holding Glinda said something, but she didn’t even hear it. Because the girl was leaving. Flicking the cigarette butt on the floor and walking out.

“Sorry,” She mumbled to the boy. “I’ll be right back…just…need air.”

She pushed through the crowd as the music swelled, something upbeat and danceable, and the crowd with it. She followed the dark head, taller than some of the boys. Glinda pushed faster, the girl was getting away, but the crowd was hot and loud and Glinda had had a few and everything was ringing in her ears and –

Quiet.


	2. This Town Has Always Bored Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is a lyric from the song " Take You Back (The Iron Hoof Cattle Call)"

She gasped softly as the cold air hit her skin, raising goosebumps.

The sky was full of stars.

“First you stare, now you follow. Are you stalking me, blondie?”

She was sitting on the steps, beside the door. Glinda must have run right past her.

“Vain, aren’t we?” Glinda sniffed, in an attempt to recover some of her dignity. “Maybe I was staring at something behind you. Maybe I just needed some air.’

A ghost of a smile, although perhaps that was just the shadows on the girl’s face.

“But you admit you were staring.”

Glinda felt her face get hot, despite the cold air on her cheeks, but said nothing.

“So, do you have name, sweet? Or do stalkers not give out that kind of information?”

She was teasing Glinda, but, surprisingly, she didn’t mind it. She liked the low drawl of this girls voice, liked the gentle taunting words.

“Glinda.”

“Pretty.”

“I don’t get one back?”

“Elphaba.”

“Unusual.”

The girl laughed, a sharp, surprised sound. As if she wasn’t expecting to laugh, or didn’t laugh often.

“My apologies princess, I didn’t realize Glinda was such a common name.”

Glinda felt the corners of her mouth twitch and took a step closer.

“Not so common, I guess.”

“Not so common.” Elphaba agreed.

( _Elphaba, Elphaba, Elphaba._ Glinda’s mind kept the name spinning in her head – a spell, to keep this hold the girl had on her, to keep the night quiet.)

“Wanna tell me why you were staring at me, Glinda?”

“If you tell me why you were staring.”

It should have been a challenge, should have put Elphaba on edge, should have ended the conversation and broken the spell. But instead Elphaba stood and, smiling, asked-

“Walk with me?”

“I don’t know you.” Glinda responded, more out of surprise than actual concern. Elphaba shrugged a thin shoulder.

“You’d rather go back to letting that sweaty dairy farmer step on your feet?”

“I can’t be gone long; my ride is inside.”

Elphaba rolled her eyes.

“Don’t fret, Cinderella, I’ll have you back before midnight.”


	3. I'm Keen To Play With Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Glinda and Elphaba talk. Bit of a ramble, I'll be honest with you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is a lyric from the song " Take You Back (The Iron Hoof Cattle Call)"

The night held a chill, but Glinda hardly noticed it. She was mesmerized by the way the stars made Elphaba’s hair shine, by her loping gait.

“I haven’t seen you here before.” Glinda ventured.

Elphaba replied with a shrug. “I typically find myself at places a bit…seedier… than the Ozdust.”

“Why?” Any minute this girl was going to give up and turn back because of Glinda's pestering questions; how many times had Glinda been told that pretty girls should be seen and not heard? That they don’t ask questions? She could kick herself.

But Elphaba, to Glinda’s surprise, answered.

“I like places where I don’t stand out. I like to feel like what I do isn’t going to get back to my father, or my sister. Even though it will.” She paused for a minute and glanced at Glinda so quickly she thought she might have imagined it. “Even though it always does, it’s worth it. Because I know that for a few hours I could be myself, and no one was going to tell me I was wrong to be it.”

Glinda was burning with questions about these places, about Elphaba’s family, about what ‘being myself” meant for Elphaba. But she didn’t want to push, so she stayed quiet.

“What about you? What’s the big appeal of the Ozdust?” Elphaba asked. She was teasing again, and Glinda felt like there were tiny spiders running up and down her spine.

“I like…” She started, and then paused. What did she like? “I like dancing, and…looking pretty.” She laughed, and flushed a little, feeling silly. Elphaba tilted her head up towards the stars and smiled.

“You are pretty.” She agreed.

Glinda felt her blush deepen.

“Yeah, well, pretty only gets you so far here.”

Elphaba turned towards her, pinning her with her gaze.

“What do you mean?”

She shook her head, fumbling for the words to explain.

“Nothing, really, it’s just, well.” Glinda sighed. “Okay, so some of my friends are brilliant with school – math, English, history – the whole lot. Everyone knows they’re going to go be teachers, or work in factories to help the war effort, and just…get out of Shiz. For a while anyway. But when you’re just pretty -not that smart, not that talented, just pretty – people know you’re not going anywhere. They know you’ll marry a nice sweet boy and be a nice sweet wife and have a bunch of nice sweet children and then you’ll die.”

Glinda blinked, surprised at her own tirade. Elphaba stared at her even more intensely, like she was solving a puzzle.

“You don’t want that?” She asked. “A husband, and kids. To be a wife.”

Glinda swallowed.

“No.”

She had never said it out loud, never even alluded to it, but saying it now, under the stars and with this fascinating girl – it felt like a declaration of war.

“Neither do I.”

Glinda snorted.

“I could have guessed that. You don’t look like a settler.”

“Oh?” Another smile ghosted over Elphaba’s face. “What do I look like then, Miss Glinda?”

If she had a nickel, Glinda thought absently, for every time this girl made her blush, she’d lead a very comfortable life.

“You look like someone who does what she wants.”

“And what do I want?”

They had stopped walking, Glinda wasn’t even sure when. The lights of the Ozdust flicked in the distance, and the noise had been reduced to a murmur. Glinda took a minute to appreciate how _tall_ Elphaba was, leaning over her like she was. She was close, very close, Glinda could feel the heat radiating off her.

“Well,” She said softly. “I haven’t any idea.”


	4. I Got Your Life Laid On My Floor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This took me forever to write because I couldn't find my footing. But, end result, we have the previous chapter from Elphaba's point of view and a little more!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guessed it, the title of the chapter is once again a lyric from an Orville Peck song. This time it's his song "Turn to Hate".

Elphaba usually liked her callousness. The way her scowl could scare away the polite company and tick off the rough. She liked her shell, hard-earned as it was. It protected her, made her near invincible. She could take on anyone dumb enough to come after her, cast off anything that hurt. She liked that she was tough, that she was hard.  
But right now, she’d give anything to be soft.   
This girl next to her in the starlight is nothing but soft. Glinda, floating like a lighting bug, is a gentle wave of pink and yellow, and Elphaba is the dark cliff that breaks it.   
If only she was soft.   
But she isn’t, and she doesn’t like dwelling on things that aren’t and certainly never will be, so Elphaba turns back to the present. To Glinda quietly looking at the stars and the way her hands brush her hair out of her eyes.   
Elphaba has never been a talker. Whether that’s nurture or nature she’ll never know for sure, but at this point it’s so ingrained in her she’s not sure it matters.. Elphaba has found that if people want to talk to you, they will. And if they don’t, they won’t. Pretty straightforward.   
“I haven’t seen you here before.”  
Glinda’s voice is soft (of course it is) but Elphaba still has to hide a start. She shrugged, trying to brush it off.   
“I typically find myself at places a bit…seedier… than the Ozdust.”  
Seedier. Other descriptors would include: disgusting, rundown, low-life, outcast.   
“Why?”   
Glinda frowns almost as soon as she speaks, like she messed something up.   
Elphaba turned the question over in her mind. Why avoid the most popular dancehall in town when your father is the local preacher, famous for his tirades against all things drinking, dancing, and fun?   
“I like places where I don’t stand out.” Elphaba says, hesitantly.   
“I like to feel like what I do isn’t going to get back to my father, or my sister.”   
True, that. Frex would bitch and moan, while Nessa cried and loudly reprimanded her. It bothered her less at this point, but still tended to be a bit of a hassle.   
(It bothered her a lot, but she was better at ignoring it now.)  
“Even when it does. Even when it does, it’s worth it. Because I know that for a few hours I could be myself, and no one was going to tell me I was wrong to be it.”   
She wondered, idly, if Glinda could tell that it had actually surprised her to say that out loud. She usually led with the “I like causing problems because it’s fun” story, not the “I have a lot of secrets and I like places where I don’t have to keep them” story.   
If Glinda somehow hadn’t caught on yet to her (what Elphaba thought were) pretty clearly conveyed interests, she definitely did now.  
Elphaba knew she was taking a risk. Knew that exposing herself like this, even through veiled words and hidden meanings, to a girl that was clearly pretty popular in Shiz, was asking for trouble. This could go wrong a hundred different ways.   
Elphaba met Glinda’s gaze, so intense it nearly knocked the wind out of her.   
“What about you, Glinda? What’s the big appeal of the Ozdust?” Elphaba teased lightly, quickly looking away.   
Not exactly a smooth transition.  
“I like” Glinda’s gaze wandered the darkened field in front of them as she thought. “I like dancing, and…looking pretty.” She said laughing.   
Elphaba couldn’t hold back a grin. This girl was magic.  
“You are pretty.” She said it but couldn’t look at Glinda as she did. So instead she looked at the stars.   
“Yeah, well, pretty only gets you so far here.”  
Elphaba frowned, looking at her. It was the first time Glinda had shown any side of her that wasn’t sparkly and bubbly and light. This was bitter, and resentful.   
“What do you mean?”  
Glinda’s brow scrunched again, which was adorable.   
“Nothing, really, it’s just, well.” She sighed. “Okay, so some of my friends are brilliant with school – math, English, history – the whole lot. So, everyone knows they’re going to go be teachers, or work in factories to help the war effort, and just…get out of Shiz. For a while anyway. But when you’re just pretty, not that smart, not that talented, just pretty – people know you’re not going anywhere. They know you’ll marry a nice sweet boy and be a nice sweet wife and have a bunch of nice sweet children and then you’ll die.”  
It was as if something has swallowed her heart whole.   
Elphaba looked at this girl, this champagne girl with her sparkly dress and easy smile, and felt and overwhelming urge to change the world for her.   
“You don’t want that? A husband, and kids. To be a wife.” The words left her mouth unbidden, unwanted. She would have cursed herself, but her thoughts were primarily concerned with Glinda.   
And Glinda.   
Glinda looked as if she was steeling herself, the same look in her eye as a man pulling back his fist to start a brawl, as a farmer facing the oncoming storm.   
“No.”   
The word, once it’s spoken, sits in between them. A challenge? A testament? A prayer? Elphaba doesn’t know what it is, what it means, but she feels the weight of it on her lungs.   
“Neither do I.”   
Glinda snorted, lessening the weight. Breaking it up, making it more manageable.   
“I could have guessed that. You don’t look like a settler.”  
Elphaba felt the corners of her lips turn up slightly, and decides to tease Glinda again.   
“Oh? What do I look like then, Miss Glinda?”   
Glinda blushed, her eyes flickering up and down Elphaba’s frame absentmindedly.   
“You look like someone who does what she wants.”  
Elphaba had not been drunk all night. Tipsy, maybe, in the beginning, but not drunk. But with the way her head was buzzing, and her gravity tilted at Glinda’s words she might as well have been.   
And, same as if she was drunk, she felt ice-cold courage bolt through her, and stepped closer to Glinda.   
“And what do I want.”  
The words were barely there, Elphaba wasn’t sure if she had thought them or breathed them or dreamed them altogether.   
Glinda met her eyes, gaze soft.   
“Well, I haven’t any idea.”   
Elphaba took a breath.   
“Do you want to?”   
It was Glinda, this time, who further closed the gap between them. They were close enough that Elphaba could see the details of Glinda’s irises.   
“Yes.”   
“I’d like to kiss you.”  
Glinda’s mouth parted with a soft sigh.   
“Oh, I wish you would.”   
And so she did. 


End file.
